Media Advisory

MEDIA ADVISORY

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER14, 2012

11:00 AM – ANNAPOLIS

Local Government, Student, Teacher and Faith leaders Join Health Care For All! Coalition to Announce Broad Public Support For Dollar Increase In Cigarette Tax to Reduce Teen Smoking and Fund Health Care

BALTIMORE, MD (November 12, 2012) –On November 14, 2012 at 11am on Lawyers’ Mall in front of the State House in Annapolis, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett will join local government, student, teacher and faith leaders to call for a dollar increase in the state tobacco tax to reduce teen smoking and fund health care and public health needs. The Maryland Health Care For All! Coalition will make enacting this life-saving measure a priority.

“Over the past decade, three cigarette tax increases in Maryland have reduced smoking by 32% (double the national average) and saved 70,000 Marylanders from tobacco caused preventable deaths,” said Vincent DeMarco, President of the Maryland Health Care For All! Coalition. “ The money raised from the 2007 tobacco tax increase also helped to fund health care coverage for over 100,000 Maryland parents. We can build on this success by enacting another dollar increase in the cigarette tax which will save tens of thousands more lives from tobacco caused death and raise another $100 million which can be used to fund health care and public health needs.”

The Health Care for All! Coalition is a broad-based coalition of over 1200 faith, labor, business and community groups that have been working to guarantee all Marylanders access to quality, affordable health care. To learn more, visit http://www.healthcareforall.com